If you are going to take a vacation on another planet, then it is important to know about possible climate changes :) But seriously, many people know that most planets in our solar system have extreme temperatures that are not suitable for a quiet life. But what exactly are the temperatures on the surface of these planets? Below I offer a small overview of the temperatures of the planets. solar system.
Mercury
Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, so one might assume that it is constantly burning like a furnace. However, while the temperature on Mercury can reach 427°C, it can also drop as low as -173°C. Mercury has such a large temperature difference because it has no atmosphere.
Venus
Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun, has the highest average temperatures of any planet in our solar system, regularly reaching 460°C. Venus is so hot because of its proximity to the Sun and its dense atmosphere. The atmosphere of Venus is made up of dense clouds containing carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. This creates a strong greenhouse effect that traps the sun's heat in the atmosphere and turns the planet into a furnace.
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and so far the only planet known for its ability to support life. The average temperature on Earth is 7.2°C, but it varies by large deviations from this indicator. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 70.7°C in Iran. The lowest temperature was , and it reaches -91.2°C.
Mars
Mars is cold because, firstly, it does not have an atmosphere to maintain high temperature, and secondly, it is relatively far from the Sun. Since Mars has an elliptical orbit (it gets much closer to the Sun at some points in its orbit), during the summer, its temperature can deviate up to 30°C from the norm in the northern and southern hemispheres. The minimum temperature on Mars is approximately -140°C and the highest is 20°C.
Jupiter
Jupiter doesn't have any solid surface, since it's a gas giant, so it doesn't have any surface temperature either. At the top of Jupiter's clouds, temperatures are around -145°C. As you descend closer to the center of the planet, the temperature increases. At a point where the atmospheric pressure is ten times that of Earth, the temperature is 21°C, which some scientists jokingly refer to as "room temperature." In the core of the planet, the temperature is much higher and reaches approximately 24,000°C. For comparison, it is worth noting that the core of Jupiter is hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Saturn
As with Jupiter, the temperature in Saturn's upper atmosphere remains very low - down to about -175°C - and increases as you get closer to the center of the planet (up to 11,700°C at the core). Saturn, in fact, generates heat itself. It generates 2.5 times more energy than it receives from the Sun.
Uranus
Uranus is the coldest planet with the lowest recorded temperature of -224°C. Although Uranus is far from the Sun, this is not the only reason for its low temperature. All other gas giants in our solar system emit more heat from their cores than they receive from the Sun. Uranus has a core with a temperature of approximately 4737°C, which is only one-fifth the temperature of Jupiter's core.
Neptune
With temperatures as low as -218°C in Neptune's upper atmosphere, this planet is one of the coldest in our solar system. Like the gas giants, Neptune has a much hotter core that is around 7000°C.
Below is a graph showing planetary temperatures in both Fahrenheit (°F) and Celsius (°C). Please note that Pluto has not been classified as a planet since 2006 (see below).
How hot is Mercury? Well, it depends on where you are on the surface of the planet. It has a very weak atmosphere. This means that the planet does not store the heat it receives from our star.
The temperature on the side facing the Sun is surprisingly high, around 430° C. But at the same time, on the far side, it can drop to -163° C. Due to the low axial tilt, the poles never get sunlight and have a temperature of -183° C. Considering these, the average temperature on the planet is 179° C.
Mercury
It is the smallest planet in the solar system and revolves around the sun in 87.969 Earth days.
It does not have satellites and rings, but some scientists believe that it may have had a satellite in the ancient past. The planet has an apparent magnitude of 2.3 to 5.7 and would be easily visible to the naked eye if it were not so close to the Sun.
Scientists are very interested in studying Mercury. This is one of the least explored planets.
Mariner 10 was the first spaceship, who visited the planet, but he photographed only a small part of its surface. The MESSENGER spacecraft, currently in orbit around it, transmitted much more information, including a complete map of the planet. Thanks to his data, scientists have found evidence of the existence of water ice in the polar regions, you can read more.
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The planet Mars, like another close neighbor of the Earth, Venus, has been subjected to the closest study of astronomers since antiquity. Visible to the naked eye, since ancient times it has been shrouded in mystery, legends and conjectures. And today we know far from everything about the Red Planet, however, many of the information obtained over centuries of observation and study dispelled some myths, helped a person to understand many of the processes taking place on this planet. space object. The temperature on Mars, the composition of its atmosphere, the features of orbital movement after improvement technical methods research and the beginning of the space age managed to move from the category of assumptions to the rank of indisputable facts. Nevertheless, much of the data about both such a close and such a distant neighbor has yet to be explained.
Fourth
Mars is located one and a half times farther from the Sun than our planet (the distance is estimated at 228 million km). According to this parameter, he takes the fourth place. Beyond the orbit of the Red Planet lies the main asteroid belt and the "possession" of Jupiter. It flies around our star in about 687 days. At the same time, the orbit of Mars is strongly elongated: its perihelion is located at a distance of 206.7, and aphelion - 249.2 million km. A day lasts here only almost 40 minutes longer than on Earth: 24 hours and 37 minutes.
little brother
Mars belongs to the planets terrestrial group. The main substances that make up its structure are metals and silicon. Among similar objects in its dimensions, it is only ahead of Mercury. The diameter of the Red Planet is 6786 kilometers, which is about half that of the Earth. However, in terms of mass, Mars is 10 times inferior to our space home. The area of the entire surface of the planet slightly exceeds the area of the earth's continents combined, without taking into account the expanses of the oceans. The density here is also lower - it is only 3.93 kg / m 3.
The search for life
Despite the obvious difference between Mars and Earth, for a long time it was considered a real candidate for the title of a habitable planet. Before the start of the space age, scientists who observed the reddish surface of this cosmic body through a telescope, periodically found signs of life, which soon, however, found a more prosaic explanation.
Over time, the conditions under which even the simplest organisms could appear outside the Earth were clearly defined. These include certain temperature parameters and the presence of water. Many studies of the Red Planet have aimed to find out whether a suitable climate has developed there, and, if possible, to find traces of life.
Temperature on Mars
The Red Planet is an inhospitable world. Considerable distance from the Sun significantly affects climatic conditions this cosmic body. The temperature on Mars in Celsius varies on average from -155º to +20º. It is much colder here than on Earth, since the Sun, located one and a half times further away, warms the surface half as weakly. These not the most favorable conditions are exacerbated by a rarefied atmosphere, which transmits radiation well, which is known to be detrimental to all living things.
Such facts reduce to a minimum the chances of finding traces of existing or once extinct organisms on Mars. However, the point in this issue has not yet been set.
Determining Factors
The temperature on Mars, like on Earth, depends on the position of the planet relative to the star. Its maximum indicator (20-33º) is observed during the day near the equator. Minimum values (up to -155º) are reached in the vicinity of South Pole. Significant temperature fluctuations are characteristic of the entire territory of the planet.
These differences affect both the climatic features of Mars and its appearance. The main detail of its surface, noticeable even from the Earth, is the polar caps. As a result of significant heating in summer and cooling in winter, they undergo tangible changes: either they decrease until they almost completely disappear, then they increase again.
Is there water on Mars?
When summer comes in one of the hemispheres, the corresponding polar cap begins to decrease in size. Due to the orientation of the planet's axis, as it approaches the perihelion point, the southern half turns towards the Sun. As a result, the summer here is somewhat hotter, and the polar cap disappears almost completely. In the north, this effect is not observed.
Changes in the size of the polar caps led scientists to the idea that they are composed of not quite regular ice. The data collected to date allow us to assume that carbon dioxide, which contains a large amount of the atmosphere of Mars, plays a significant role in their formation. In the cold season, the temperature here reaches a point at which it usually turns into the so-called dry ice. It is he who begins to melt with the advent of summer. Water, according to scientists, is also present on the planet and makes up that part of the polar caps that remains unchanged even with an increase in temperature (heating is not enough for it to disappear).
At the same time, the planet Mars cannot boast of having the main source of life in a liquid state. Hope for its discovery for a long time instilled areas of relief, very reminiscent of riverbeds. It is still not completely clear what could have led to their formation if there was never liquid water on the Red Planet. The atmosphere of Mars testifies in favor of the "dry" past. Its pressure is so insignificant that the boiling point of water falls at temperatures unusually low for the Earth, that is, it can exist here only in a gaseous state. Theoretically, Mars could have had a denser atmosphere in the past, but then it would have left traces of it in the form of heavy inert gases. However, they have not been found so far.
Winds and storms
The temperature on Mars, more precisely, its differences, leads to the rapid movement of air masses in the hemisphere where winter has come. The resulting winds reach 170 m/s. On Earth, such phenomena would be accompanied by showers, but the Red Planet does not have sufficient water reserves for this. Dust storms arise here, so massive that sometimes they cover the entire planet. The rest of the time there is almost always clear weather (water is also needed to form a significant amount of clouds) and very clear air.
Despite the relatively small size of Mars and its uninhabitability, scientists have high hopes for it. Here in the future it is planned to place bases for the extraction of minerals and the implementation of various scientific activity. It is still difficult to say how real such projects are, but the continuous development of technology testifies in favor of the fact that soon humanity will be able to embody the most daring ideas.
It will be no secret to anyone that the Earth is the only habitable planet in our solar system. All planets, except the Earth, are distinguished by the absence of a breathable atmosphere, and many of them are also too hot or vice versa - frozen worlds.
The planets of our solar system with respect to scale, in the lower left part of the picture - the orbits of the planets / NASA image
A "habitable zone" exists in every star system having a planet, it is a certain conditional area, in which the existence of water in the liquid phase is possible on the planets. In this connection, on such planets or their satellites, conditions arise that are suitable for the appearance of life similar to the earth.
So, hot and cold worlds in our solar system! What exactly do we know about the temperatures of their surfaces and what actually affects these temperatures?
Photo of Mercury obtained from the American automatic interplanetary station Messenger / photo NASA Of the eight planets in the Solar System, Mercury is the closest to the Sun, so we would expect it to be the hottest on our list. However, since it has no atmosphere and rotates around its axis very slowly, the temperature on its surface fluctuates over fairly wide ranges.
Slow rotation around the axis leads to the fact that the side of Mercury facing the Sun heats up to 427 ° C. Meanwhile, on the opposite side, temperatures drop to -173°C, so Mercury's average temperature will be 67°C.
Venus is an incredibly hot and hostile world, due to a combination of its dense atmosphere and proximity to the Sun / NASA image / JPL Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun, also boasts high surface temperatures of up to 470°C. Such a temperature on the surface of Venus is due to the greenhouse effect, slow rotation around the axis, as well as proximity to the Sun. Due to the dense atmosphere, daily temperature fluctuations are insignificant, despite being on the very border of the habitable zone, life on Venus in our understanding is impossible.
Greenhouse gases and the density of the atmosphere of Venus created the strongest greenhouse effect, a significant part solar heat held by the planet's atmosphere, and the surface is a barren and molten landscape. On the surface of Venus there are thousands of ancient volcanoes that erupted lava in the past, hundreds of craters, the planet's crust is very thin, it is weakened by high temperatures and does little to prevent lava eruptions outward. An extremely inhospitable place by any measure!
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is still the only inhabited planet known to us. average temperature Earth's surface is 7.2 °C and it varies depending on a number of factors. A significant influence on the temperatures of the northern and southern hemispheres of the planet has an axial tilt, which means that at certain times of the year one of the hemispheres receives more light from the Sun, and the other hemisphere, on the contrary, less.
But despite all this, there are also extreme places on Earth, for example, in Antarctica, a record low temperature of -91.2 ° C was recorded, and in Death Valley, located in the Mojave Desert region, USA, a positive temperature of 56.7 °C
The thin atmosphere of Mars, visible on the horizon, is too weak to keep the planet warm / NASA image The average temperature on the surface of Mars is -55 ° C, but temperature fluctuations also occur on the Red Planet. At the equator, temperatures reach 20 °C, while at the poles the thermometer drops to -153 °C. But on average, Mars is much colder than Earth, due to its thin atmosphere that can't hold heat from the Sun, and because it's on the outer edge of the habitable zone.
Jupiter is a gas giant and the most big planet Solar system / photo NASA / JPL / University Jupiter is a gas giant and the largest planet in the solar system. It doesn't have a surface and so we can't measure its temperature, but measurements taken in Jupiter's upper atmosphere showed a temperature of around -145°C, as we get closer to the planet's center we see an increase in temperature due to atmospheric pressure.
At a point where Jupiter's atmospheric pressure is ten times greater than on Earth, the temperature reaches 21 ° C, which we consider comfortable, and at the core of the planet the temperature reaches up to 35,700 ° C - hotter than at the surface of the Sun.
Saturn and its rings, photo transmitted by the Cassini spacecraft / NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute / Gordan Ugarkovic Saturn is the second largest planet after Jupiter, a cold gas giant, with an average temperature of -178 ° C. Due to the tilt of Saturn's axis, the southern and northern hemispheres heat up differently, resulting in seasonal temperature fluctuations and powerful winds on the planet. Like Jupiter, the temperature in the upper atmosphere of Saturn is quite low, but closer to the center of the planet, the temperature rises. It is assumed that in the core of the planet the temperature reaches 11,700 °C.
Image of Uranus obtained from the spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986 / photo NASA / JPL / Voyager Uranus - unlike the gas giants of Jupiter and Saturn, which consist mainly of hydrogen and helium, there is no metallic hydrogen in the bowels of Uranus, as well as Neptune similar to it, but ice is present in large quantities, in high-temperature modifications, which is why these two the planets were singled out in a separate class - "Ice giants". The temperature of Uranus at a pressure of 0.1 bar is -224 °C, which makes it the coldest planet in the solar system, Uranus even colder than Neptune, which is farther from the Sun.
Image of Neptune obtained from the Voyager 2 spacecraft / photo NASA / JPL / Voyager The temperature of Neptune's upper atmosphere drops to -218 ° C, the planet is the second coldest place in our solar system. But like all gas giants, Neptune has a hot core, the temperature of which is about 7000 ° C. The weather on the planet is destructive, storms and winds reach supersonic speeds, most of the winds on Neptune blow in the direction opposite to the rotation of the planet, the general wind pattern shows, that at high latitudes the direction of the winds coincides with the rotation of the planet, and at low latitudes it is opposite to it.
In summary, our solar system is going from extreme to extreme, from extreme cold to unbearably hot, and in general there are only a few places that are sufficiently habitable to support life. And of all places, Earth is the only planet most suitable for sustaining permanent life.
Many people know that most of the planets in our solar system have extreme temperatures that are not suitable for life to exist. But what exactly are the temperatures on the surface of these planets? We present a small overview of the temperatures of the planets of the solar system.
MERCURY
1. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, so one might assume that it is constantly burning like a furnace. However, although the temperature on Mercury can reach 427°C, it can also drop to a very low temperature of -173°C. Such a large difference in temperature occurs because it has no atmosphere.
VENUS
2. Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun, has the highest average temperatures of any planet in our solar system, regularly reaching 460°C. so hot because of its proximity to the Sun and its dense atmosphere. The atmosphere of Venus consists of dense clouds containing carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. This creates a strong greenhouse effect that traps the sun's heat in the atmosphere and turns the planet into a furnace.
EARTH
3. Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and so far the only planet known for its ability to support life. The average temperature on Earth is 7.2°C, but it varies by large deviations from this indicator. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 70.7°C in Iran. The lowest temperature was recorded in Antarctica, and it reaches -91.2°C.
MARS
4. Mars is cold because, firstly, it does not have an atmosphere to maintain high temperature, and secondly, it is relatively far from the Sun. Since Mars has an elliptical orbit (it gets much closer to the Sun at some points in its orbit), during the summer, its temperature can deviate up to 30°C from the norm in the northern and southern hemispheres. The minimum temperature on Mars is approximately -140°C and the highest is 20°C.
JUPITER
5. Jupiter doesn't have any solid surface since it's a gas giant, so it doesn't have any surface temperature either. At the top of Jupiter's clouds, temperatures are around -145°C. As you descend closer to the center of the planet, the temperature increases. At a point where the atmospheric pressure is ten times that of Earth, the temperature is 21°C, which some scientists jokingly refer to as "room temperature." In the core of the planet, the temperature is much higher and reaches approximately 24,000°C. For comparison, it is worth noting that the core of Jupiter is hotter than.
SATURN
6. As with Jupiter, the temperature in Saturn's upper atmosphere remains very low - down to about -175°C - and increases as it approaches the planet's center (up to 11,700°C at the core). Saturn, in fact, generates heat itself. It generates 2.5 times more energy than it receives from the Sun.
URANUS
7. Uranus is the coldest planet with the lowest recorded temperature of -224°C. Although Uranus is far from the Sun, this is not the only reason for its low temperature. All other gas giants in our solar system emit more heat from their cores than they receive from the sun. Uranus has a core with a temperature of approximately 4737°C, which is only one-fifth the temperature of Jupiter's core.
NEPTUNE
8. With temperatures reaching as low as -218°C in Neptune's upper atmosphere, this planet is one of the coldest in our solar system. Like the gas giants, Neptune has a much hotter core that is around 7000°C.
